VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vice Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara at a media dialog in Jayapura, Papua, on Saturday. (ANTARA/Agatha Olivia) - 

Investment, which has begun to show an upward trend, will be one of the engines of national economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2021, Vice Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara has said.

“As the spread of COVID-19 has begun to decline in Indonesia, it has encouraged investors to invest (in the country)," he said at a media dialog in Jayapura, Papua, on Saturday.

The high investment was also visible from the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in September 2021, which returned to the expansion level of 52.2 after declining to the level of 43.7 in August 2021 due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, he noted.

The transmission of the Delta variant of COVID-19 began to decline in September 2021, thereby increasing the mobility of people, he said.

With the rising mobility of individuals, the economy will hopefully improve steadily and recover by the end of this year, he added.

“The risk which once cast a shadow (on the economy) in the third quarter has been passed,” Nazara remarked.

In addition to rising investment, the government’s spending will also boost fourth-quarter economic growth, he projected. Normally, the government pushes its spending at the end of the year, he explained.

Rising exports and imports will also boost fourth-quarter economic growth as there has been a massive shortage of shipping containers due to the pandemic, he said.

“These are what we can expect in the fourth quarter so we must pass it through by maintaining the health protocols and preventing transmission, and the expected economic growth will be achieved,” he added//ANT

Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry's director for primary education, Sri Wahyuningsih, presents her remarks during an education consultation event in Parigi Moutong district, SE Sulawesi on Saturday (October 16, 2021). (ANTARA/Moh Ridwan) - 

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology has said that the decision to implement face-to-face school has been taken to address issues surrounding education that have emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Besides health issues, the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the educational sector. To address this issue, the four ministers' joint decree instructed the offline face-to-face school activities to commence immediately," the ministry's director for primary education, Sri Wahyuningsih, stated during an education consultation event in Parigi Moutong district, Southeast Sulawesi, on Saturday.

Offline school has been allowed only in regions with Level 1, 2, and 3 activities restriction enforcement (PPKM), and only vaccinated teachers have been allowed to participate in the school reopening, she affirmed.

With the recent decline in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, the ministry has urged administrators of reopened schools to remain vigilant and strictly enforce health protocol, the director said.

"From our inspections, we found a lot of cases of schools where the pupils were not observing health protocols. Teachers' presence to remind the pupils is essential as vaccination cannot completely shield our body from being infected by the virus," Wahyuningsih stressed.

She underlined the necessity for strict health protocol enforcement to ensure safe and convenient school activities and to prevent reopened schools from turning into COVID-19 infection clusters.

"We should not be complacent on the recent COVID-19 cases decline, and we should remain vigilant instead to prevent the infection at school," Wahyuningsih said.

Besides offline school, teachers and students should continue utilizing information technology for class activities and not neglect the distanced learning system that has been in place for more than a year, the director advised.

"We hope the execution of nationwide primary school reopening would be smooth and no COVID-19 infection cluster occurs at reopened schools," she stated//ANT

Indonesian President Joko Widodo - 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged state-owned enterprises (BUMN) engaged in infrastructure construction to meticulously calculate all tasks handed by the government to them.

The head of state additionally reminded SOEs to not solely be project-oriented and merely compete for tasks without any clear-cut calculations.

"I can give a task to build a toll road, but it must be calculated," Jokowi remarked while giving directives to president directors of SOEs in West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, on Thursday (Oct 14), as broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel here on Saturday.

The head of state urged state-owned infrastructure firms to gauge the level of investment efficiency or internal rate of return (IRR) to decipher the required State Budget (APBN) to be allocated.

"Do not compete to get a task without calculation. Owing to the tasks, you then take a short-term loan. Since the infrastructure is for the long term, it does not match. It is your job to do the calculations if there is a task (to build the infrastructure project)," the head of state noted.

Jokowi emphasized that if the calculation indicates no logic in the investment, then the logic should be found but through calculation.

"Abandon old culture since once again for business transformation, technology adaptation has become a must and is inevitable," he noted.

The head of state also reminded other SOEs, such as those engaged in the fields of food, health, and energy, to compute every task given by the government to them//ANT

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin holding a dialogue with students and teachers at SD Negeri Inpres VIM 1 Kotaraja, Abepura, Jayapura city, Papua on Friday (October 15, 2021). (ANTARA/HO-Setwapres) - 

The Indonesian government has set the target of lifting 196,120 Papuans residing in five districts out of extreme poverty this year, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has said.

During a coordination meeting at the Papua Governor's Office on Saturday, he informed that the 196,120 residents are among the approximately 2.1 million extremely poor nationwide, who will be targeted by the poverty alleviation program in 2021.

“In 2021, we will resolve extreme poverty in around 2.1 million citizens spread in seven provinces, including Papua, where five districts (of the province) are prioritized in 2021,” the Vice President said.

According to Amin, the five Papuan districts were prioritized based on the percentage of extreme poverty levels combined with the number of extremely poor people in the area.

“Especially for the five districts in Papua that are prioritized in 2021, the number of extremely poor people is 196,120, with a total of extremely poor households reaching 89,500,” he expounded.

While 30.84 percent or 67,720 of the 196,120 targeted Papuan residents are from Jayawijaya district, 26.53 percent or 35,180 are from Puncak Jaya district, 30.52 percent or 54,920 are from Lanny Jaya district, 29.19 percent or 14,200 are from Central Mamberamo district, and 32.48 percent or 24,100 are from Deiyai district, he informed.

The targeted residents have been identified based on a global measurement by the World Bank that has defined the extreme poor as those who are living on less than $1.9 per day, Amin explained.

Regarding the handling of extreme poverty in 2021, the Vice President emphasized that there is no problem regarding funding because the government has adequate funds to resolve extreme poverty.

"However, the biggest challenge now is how to make these programs convergent and integrated into targeting the same target," he added.

Therefore, the Vice President has instructed all levels of the Papuan provincial government to prioritize the convergence of programs from ministries and non-ministerial government institutions so that the assistance is accurately distributed to beneficiaries//ANT